Issues of concern to people who live in the west: property rights, water rights, endangered species, livestock grazing, energy production, wilderness and western agriculture. Plus a few items on western history, western literature and the sport of rodeo... Frank DuBois served as the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003. DuBois is a former legislative assistant to a U.S. Senator, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior, and is the founder of the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship.

Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Alaska Natives, environmentalists add to push for action on nearby Canadian mining

Alaska Native and environmental groups on Monday petitioned the Interior Secretary to launch a formal investigation into whether pollution from mines in British Columbia is causing problems for wildlife across the border in Southeast Alaska.
The groups pointed to a 1971 amendment and several international agreements to argue that Interior Secretary Sally Jewell has a duty to launch an investigation into the potential Alaska environmental impacts from six hard-rock mines in British Columbia. And they want the agency to support a joint United States-Canada commission to hash out the issue.
Earthjustice attorney Kenta Tsuda charged the U.S. government with "waiting on the sidelines" as Canadian mine companies barrelled ahead, and Frederick Olsen Jr., chairman of the United Tribal Transboundary Mining Work Group, called the state of affairs "federal under-reach. "This isn't the first time the Interior Department and the Obama
administration have heard from Alaskans concerned that pollution from
the mines could devastate Southeast Alaska fisheries: The state's U.S.
Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan and Congressman Don Young, as well
as officials in Gov. Bill Walker's administration, have all raised the
issue with officials from Jewell to Secretary of State John Kerry to
White House staff. But the delegation said pleas for White House officials to raise the issue in recent talks with Canada have gone unheard...more